The Two Minute Review: Dollars

Ronan Doyle
2 hours ago
2 min read

What’s the story with Dollars?

After being impressed by the Peruvian plates at The Hoxton’s Cantina Valentina, we were quietly curious if daytime deli Dollars could repeat the magic. With New York deli counter culture a dime a dozen in Dublin these days there’s no novel niche-filling here – especially with so much local competition about. Add to that all those years we had to walk through the ugly hoarding outside, and these would want to be good.

And?

There are worse sandwiches you can get around these parts, but few with the gall to charge these prices. One bite of the Got Beef (€13) provoked deep sighs of disbelief – a kinda-riff on a reuben, its generous mounds of slow-cooked salt beef are layered over what the menu claims to be sauerkraut. Our taste buds beg to differ - sir, this is coleslaw. But at least it was there.

Online they list this one at €14 with Swiss cheese and thousand island dressing. In person, neither were included. Given that both, or the ingredients to make them, were evident in abundance around us, we can’t begin to comprehend what happened here. Rudy Giuliani would be more welcome back in NYC than this sandwich.

And no pickles? What gives!? You can get a side of the house pickles for ANOTHER €3. We’d wanted those either way, but all the more so in absentia. At least they’re in the Piggy Bank (€14), as well as literally in jars all over the walls. Between this and the other absent but in-sight ingredients, we started to wonder where hidden cameras would come from. That elusive Swiss showed up here mildly more molten than poor Joanne Cronin’s, with over under-assertive mustard but solid slices of porchetta and honey-roast ham. It’s as good as it gets here, but with Little Geno’s comparable Cubano a ten minute stroll (and a €3 saving) away, it ain’t good enough.

The promise of a Dillisk seaweed chicken salad had us hurtling for The Hu$tler (see what they’ve done there? We wish they didn't), but you’ll have sensed by now what Dollars’ word is worth. That prime Irish ingredient’s deeply savoury, salty notes are entirely absent, in tune with the sad slivers of bacon. Let's not get started on “heirloom” tomatoes in February, please. €14? Nope.

There’s happier news where coffee’s concerned, courtesy of economies of scale and The Hoxton’s 3-year contract with UK-based Origin roasters - a big part of the business model that’s seen more and more chains claim space in the city of late. Our latte and mocha (€4) undercut much of the competition, and washed our mouths out well.

Why should we go?

If you take your tips from gluts of #gifted reccs, we guess. Dollars’ four-cheese toastie certainly looked the stringy part in the post-opening Insta crush, and the adjacent bar space has the fitout to make the evening wine offering to wash them down with sound mighty tempting, but a deeper dive into this menu leaves a lot to be desired – half the advertised ingredients, to start with. This is prime real estate, and prime prices, and little more.